PORTLAND, Ore. – Boise State (3-3-1) found an aggressive spurt in the last 10 minutes of the game that almost ended up in a goal, but Washington’s (5-2-0) two goals in the 51st and 60th minute solidified the 2-0 result in the Huskies’ favor Friday evening in a neutral game at Merlo Field on the campus of the University of Portland.

Aubree Chatterton led the way with two shots – both of which were on goal – and Tara Fisher tallied six saves in her first start of the season.

“In regards to the flow of the game, I thought overall we were very unaggressive in our choices,” head coach Jim Thomas said. “Not in physical play or work rate – we worked very hard up front as always – but we ended up making a lot of passive choices. To Washington’s credit, they finished much stronger than we did in the first half, and that carried over to the beginning of the second half.”

Neither team managed to get off a shot in the first 20 minutes as the first half was largely played in the midfield. Washington began to earn some quality chances towards the latter part of the half, but Fisher was able to answer the bell on two of the Huskies’ more dangerous shots.

Boise State nearly gave up a goal in the last 10 minutes of the first half, but Fisher’s performance coupled with several timely clears from the Bronco backline made it a 0-0 game going into the half.

“She was solid,” Thomas said on Fisher’s play. “She’s a great goalkeeper who has very high standards, and she probably wants that second goal back.”

UW resumed their attack at the beginning of the second half and scored in the 51st off a Kimberly Keever cross that resulted in a straight on 10-yard shot for Sianna Siemonsma to make it a 1-0 game.

The next goal came shortly after Jessica Udovich sent another ball into the box and Siemonsma managed to get her head on a ball that looped over the outstretched arm of Fisher, just going in to the top of the goal for a 2-0 advantage.

The Broncos would gather, however, and go on to tally all six of their shots in the final 17 minutes of the game. Chatterton had two of the best chances of the day in the 74th minute, but the UW keeper was able to make the save on both occasions.

“We have a lot of talented players, great team unity and we’re pretty well organized, but we’re still going through the process of truly finding out who we are,” Thomas said. “We threw the kitchen sink at them in the last 10 minutes and we were unlucky to get a goal, but we need to begin the game that way.”

Boise State will return to Merlo Field on Sunday afternoon and take on Portland at 4 p.m. (MT).